This invention relates to the production of products, and more specifically, to an integrated manufacturing system for managing the distribution to a factory floor and throughout a factory of the information that is necessary to effectuate the production of products on the factory floor.
It has long been known to manufacture products in factories. Moreover, it has long been known that one of the primary factors to which consideration normally is most often given before commencing the construction of a new manufacturing facility and/or the refurbishing of an old one is the nature of the product which will be manufactured therein. Also, the fact that particular types of facilities are better suited for the manufacture of certain kinds of products than are others is well accepted. Finally, it has long been known that the configuration of the exterior and the interior of a manufacturing facility as well as the manner in which the production equipment is arranged within the facility are predicated, in large measure if not entirely, upon the nature of the steps which are required to be performed in order to effect the successful manufacture of the given product in the particular facility.
Continuing, factories built prior to World War II commonly were built in the form of multistory buildings. Moreover, in accord with the design and use of such multistory buildings as factories, the heaviest of the manufacturing equipment normally was located in the basement and/or first floor of the multistory factory building. The upper floors of the multistory factory building were thus left free to be used for purposes of receiving the lighter manufacturing equipment thereat and/or to permit assembly-type operations to be conducted thereat. As a consequence of the manufacturing equipment being laid out in the aforedescribed fashion in such multistory factory buildings, the materials from which the products were being fabricated, as these materials progressed through the various stages of manufacturing culminating in the completed production of the products, were customarily required to be moved about within the multistory factory building, i.e., from one portion of one floor thereof to another portion of the same floor thereof and/or from one floor thereof to another floor thereof. With the materials having to be moved about within the multistory factory building, this resulted in valuable manufacturing time being lost since obviously while the materials were in transit between one point and another within the multistory factory building there was no manufacturing operation being performed thereon.
However, following World War II as new factories were being built it became more and more common to find such new factories being built in the form of single story buildings, i.e., being built so as to be all on one level. Moreover, by the middle of the 1950's not only were factories being built so that they were all of one level but also so that they were laid out in a particular fashion. Namely, in terms of layout such factories were being made to embody a layout wherein the raw materials from which the products were to be manufactured were made to enter the factory building at one end thereof. Then, while in the process of traversing the interior of the factory building these raw materials progressively were subjected to successive operations of the manufacturing process such that by the time they reached the other end of the building they had been transformed into finished products. As finished products, they were then shipped out of the factory building from this other end thereof. One of the benefits that was derived from the use of such a layout was that it enabled a reduction to be had in the amount of production time lost due to materials having to be moved from one area to another within the factory building which had served to disadvantageously characterize the use of multistory buildings for manufacturing purposes.
The focus in the 1960's and 1970's, insofar as factories and the manufacturing operations conducted therewithin are concerned, shifted from one of plant construction and layout to one largely of looking at ways of achieving a more effective and efficient utilization of the manufacturing equipment being employed in the factory building. In one way or another much of this effort was centered on realizing a reduction in the extent to which a human was required to be involved in the actual operation of the manufacturing equipment. Said another way, much of this effort in one way or another was centered on ways in which it might be possible to automate more and more of the manufacturing equipment's operation. One outgrowth undoubtedly attributable to this effort was the fact that numerically controlled (NC) machines began to be seen in increasing numbers within factory buildings.
The period following this, up to and including the present, has been characterized by and large by the fact that more and more attention has been devoted to finding ways in which more and more use can be made of computers in connection with manufacturing operations. By way of exemplification and not limitation in this connection, reference is had here in particular to the development during this period of what have come to be referred to as computer-aided design (CAD) systems and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems. Very broadly stated, one might say that the difference between a CAD system and a CAM system resides primarily in the fact that as may be derived from the name applied thereto a CAD system is a system wherein the use which is made of the computer in such a system is related to the design of a product, whereas a CAM system is a system wherein the use which is made of the computer in such a system is related to the manufacture of a product.
To thus summarize the preceding discussion herein, it is well accepted by virtually all that a number of significant changes have occurred over the past 40 years or so both in the manner in which factory buildings are constructed and the interior thereof is laid out, and in the manner in which manufacturing operations are conducted therewithin. For instance, it is known that in the era of multistory factory buildings notwithstanding how effectively and efficiently each of the individual operations which collectively combine to make up the total manufacturing process for a given product may have been made to be, manufacturing conducted in multistory factory buildings was nevertheless characterized by the fact that it was inherently inefficient, i.e., was not as efficient as it might otherwise have been. Reference is had in this connection to the fact that a multistory factory building by its very nature customarily gave rise to a requirement that the materials from which the products were being fabricated, as these materials progressed through the various stages of manufacturing culminating in the completed production of the products, needed to be moved about within the multistory factory building, i.e., from one portion of one floor thereof to another portion of the same floor thereof and/or from one floor thereof to another floor thereof. This requirement that the materials be moved about within the multistory factory building resulted in valuable manufacturing time being lost since obviously while the materials were in transit from one point to another within the multistory factory building there were no manufacturing operations being performed thereon.
In an effort to overcome the inefficiencies in the manufacturing process occasioned by the use of multistory factory buildings wherein materials were required to be moved from one location to another therewithin in order to enable manufacturing operations to be performed thereon thereby giving rise to lost manufacturing time while the materials were in transit, factory buildings as discussed hereinbefore began to be built all on one level, i.e., in the form of single story factory buildings. Furthermore, the movement towards replacing multistory factory buildings with single story factory buildings was then followed by a movement towards laying out the interior of the single story factory building in such a manner that the raw materials from which the products were to be manufactured were made to enter the factory building at one end thereof whereupon while in the process of traversing the interior of the single story factory building from one end to the other thereof, these raw materials progressively were subjected to successive operations in the manufacturing process such that by the time they reached the other end of the single story factory building they had been transformed into finished products and it was from this other end of the single story factory building from whence as finished products they were then shipped. By employing such a layout of the single story factory building, it was thus possible to realize therefrom a reduction in the amount of manufacturing time which was lost due to the need to move materials around from one location to another within the factory building for purposes of enabling manufacturing operations to be conducted thereupon as compared to the amount of production time which was lost due to materials having to be moved from location to location within a multistory factory building for purposes of enabling manufacturing operations to be performed thereon.
Thereafter, the focus of attention appeared to shift from one which was centered on how factory buildings were being constructed and/or how the interior thereof was being laid out to one which was centered on finding ways that would enable manufacturing equipment to be employed more effectively and more efficiently. This change in the focus of attention undoubtedly contributed in large part to the increasing frequency with which one found NC machines being employed in factory buildings and to the development of what are known today as CAD systems and CAM systems.
Once again, however, we have reached a point in time wherein notwithstanding how effectively and efficiently through the use of NC machines and/or CAD systems and/or CAM systems, etc. it may now be possible to perform each of the individual manufacturing operations which collectively combine to encompass the entire manufacturing process for a given product, time which could otherwise be better spent in the productive performance of manufacturing operations is now being lost unnecessarily just as was the case in the 1940's in the days when multistory buildings were being utilized as factories. However, unlike in the days of multistory factory buildings wherein valuable manufacturing time was being lost by virtue of the need to move the raw materials which were used in the manufacture of products extensively about from one location to another within the multistory factory building in order to enable the requisite manufacturing operations to be performed thereon, today the loss in valuable manufacturing time can be attributed not to the need to extensively move raw materials around but to the need to extensively move information around. The information to which reference is had here is the design and manufacturing data that is required for purposes of effectuating the manufacture on the factory floor of products. Today's loss of valuable manufacturing time can occasion a number of problems in the manufacturing process. Moreover, these problems may manifest themselves in a number of ways. In this regard, by way of exemplification and not limitation, there can be the problem of late delivery or missed schedules, and/or the problem of nonconforming products attributable to poor quality or the use of out-of-date data, and/or the problem of high rework and scrap levels, and/or the problem of few inventory turnovers, and/or the problem of an information poor environment wherein there is no movement of data and/or the wrong data is moved and/or the movement of data is not timely, and/or the problem of no or inadequate feedback in the status of operations within the factory, and/or the problem of no or inadequate feedback in the manufacturing capability of the equipment being employed in the factory, etc.
A need has thus been evidenced in the prior art for a new and improved system suitable for use for purposes of managing the distribution to a factory floor and throughout a factory of the information, particularly as it relates to design and manufacturing data, which is necessary to effectuate the production of products on the factory floor. More specifically, a need has thus been evidenced for such a system, which is capable of distributing in a logical and efficient fashion to the factory floor as well as throughout the factory from a central repository for all shared information, information consisting of design and manufacturing data pertaining to the product to be produced so as to thereby enable the product to be produced on the factory floor in a most timely and most cost-effective manner. Moreover, desirably such a system should encompass, but not necessarily be limited to, the central repository for all shared information, the engineering enterprise wherein the design information pertaining to the production of the product is generated, and the manufacturing resource planning system wherein the scheduling information pertaining to the flow through the factory of materials culminating in the production of the finished product is generated.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved integrated system suitable for use for managing the distribution to a factory floor and throughout a factory of information required for the manufacture of products.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an integrated manufacturing system for distributing to the factory floor and throughout the factory information in the form of design and manufacturing data that is necessary for the production of products on the factory floor.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such an integrated manufacturing system which is characterized in that it encompasses a central repository for all shared information wherein is stored the information that is distributed to the factory floor and throughout the factory.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such an integrated manufacturing system which is characterized in that it encompasses an engineering enterprise wherein the design information pertaining to the production of the product which is distributed to the factory floor and throughout the factory is generated.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide such an integrated manufacturing system which is characterized in that it encompasses a manufacturing resource planning system wherein the scheduling information pertaining to the flow through the factory of materials culminating in the production of the finished product which is distributed to the factory floor and throughout the factory is generated.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such an integrated manufacturing system which is characterized in that it is capable of being used in a new factory building.
Yet still another object of the present invention is to provide such an integrated manufacturing system which is characterized in that it is capable of being retrofitted into an existing factory building.